Maybe it's the dregs of summer, but I'm finding it hard to work up much energy about the issues in the news right now - probably because they seem like tired retreads of the usual issues while we wait for the fall recess to end. Increased media attention on the blogs seems more like a symptom of slow news cycles than of genuine interest. The debates and press releases of the candidates are already starting to sound repetitive (plus, as Sen. Gravel so beautifully put it, it's the same thing you heard four years ago, and eight years ago... and it's the same thing you're likely to hear four years from now). Right now, we're treading water in the not-at-all-influenced-by-global-warming dog days .

So here's some interesting stuff from the rest of the world, with some questions for discussion:

In South Africa , the government is opening inquiries into crimes that had been overlooked during the official "pardon" (not in the strict legal sense, but I can't find a better word) of apartheid-era officials by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission back in the 1990s. At the time, these amnesties were granted as a way of closing the door on an ugly past, but some members of the government feel that that past needs to be brought out into the daylight in order for it to be put behind them. A test case was the investigation of attempted assassination, Medea-style , of Rev. Frank Chikane nearly two decades ago: the two men under investigation both received suspended prison sentences.

The BBC article/editorial ends with a fascinating tidbit:

A former Truth Commission investigator says he is surprised that there is relatively little interest from South African students and researchers about the recent past.

By contrast, he says, overseas post-graduate scholars come here in droves on a quest to learn more.

Some questions:

- As a country with equally raw wounds stemming from a system that ostensibly ended 150 years ago, can the United States provide a model (either through its successes or failures) for reconciliation in South Africa?

- Does the disjoint between the purpose of the commissions and popular interest in them bode ill for the upcoming investigations, or does the government have a defensible point about attacking the root before it leads to decades more of corruption (in the moral, not political sense)?

The always-dependable Hugo Chavez Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have plenty to say about the myths of peace and prosperity under Chavez, but there's a legit point to be made that the focus on Chavez is disproportionate, especially given the human-rights debacle that is neighboring Colombia . Where the left is often guilty of canonizing someone, the right is often guilty of demonizing past the point of reasonable criticism.

- Assuming fair elections (a big assumption, I know), does the striking down of term limits constitute an act of authoritarianism, or legitimate response to the will of the people?

- Given the much worse human rights situation in Colombia, why does Chavez' Venezuela receive the lion's share of negative coverage in U.S. media?

Speaking of "a single party government led by a charismatic politician" (although Venezuela does have opposition parties), the military-led coup in Thailand is asking for a popular referendum to allow them to revert the Thai constitution to prevent another massively corrupt regime like the one they deposed last year. Voters are going to the polls as we speak to decide whether to give that power to the military, which overthrew a (again, ostensibly) popular president who crippled the country economically. For a military coup, this one is awfully pro-democracy, and one wonders what will happen should they lose the vote.

- Was last year's coup justified, given that President Thaksin was democratically elected?

- Prediction: what can/should the military do, should they lose the popular vote? (although we'll probably know the results before most people have read this)

Anyway, just throwing a few new topics out for discussion, and as a way of getting my neurons firing again on this wonderful, lazy, humid, hot evening. Have at it!